Before church this morning, I ran out to the grocery store to get milk so that my husband could have his morning coffee. Go ahead and tell me what a great wife I am, but the truth is that he cleaned our tornado-struck family room last night while I slept; so really, it was the least I could do. I also decided to pick up some bagels and cream cheese so I could continue my pregnancy diet of bread and cheese - in any combination. (Pizza, for example, totally counts.) Did I mention this is also a great weight-gaining diet? I digress...
Anyway, while strolling from bakery to dairy to produce and back, I heard something familiar in my ear and finally realized it was Petra's "You are not Alone." I was flooded with nostalgia. Petra, for me at least, is a beyond-classic remnant of the contemporary Christian music scene. Petra at the Fox Theater in Atlanta was my first concert - ever. Of any type of music. (Because I wasn't allowed to go see A-Ha in the fourth grade. I'm still full of regrets.)
Not only was I flooded with nostalgia but it completely lifted my mood and brought joy to my heart to realize that the entire music track was contemporary christian music - most more current than my beloved Petra. How wonderful! Now, it would be more wonderful if everyone in that store was in a Biblically-sound church on Sunday mornings, but for someone like me, running in for milk and "necessities," it was glorious. I am proud of the store owner, manager, whomever makes the decision to play that music on Sunday mornings. Seems like a minor thing but it really is an action in faith to be a light in a dark world. I may even send a note.
It was also a joyful reminder of how big God is in a world that seems to be upside down, backward and sideways. It's always been a depraved world. People have always been sinful. It's just more obvious to me the older I get - about the world and myself. So that was the blessing.
On to the curse. Just before I arrived at the store, I was listening to some boring weekend-programming on my usual conservative talk station featuring an interview with our state's Comptroller. Snooze. (And P.S.: do a better job, guy.) Anyway, just before I pulled into the store's parking lot, they teased the next topic of conversation - the mosque that is going to built at Ground Zero - with the question, "what message does this send?" My instant, audible response was "that we've conquered you." There it is: an overt, tactile, symbol of victory. We tore down your "power" and replaced it with ours. Could there be anything more disgusting? No. A big, fat, sky-scraping, modern, shining mosque is going to be built where the old Burlington Coat Factory used to stand before it was condemned from 9/11 fallout. It is terribly sad. And if you want to be politcally-correct and say this is fine and that's not what it means, that it's just a convenient location for a mosque or a peaceful showing of "multiculturalism," then you might also try purchasing a unicorn with monopoly money. The truth is the truth whether it's acknowledged or not.
The other sad thing is that this mosque will probably be erected and functioning long before the 9/11 Memorial. It's been nine years with little to no progress. Well, at least Jihadists the world-over will have their monument.
Fortunately, the God of Moses and David and Paul and little old me is bigger than any of the nonsense in the world today. And none of it escapes Him. So turn up that Petra and breathe.
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
